Well, at least with JJ Abrams, Harrison Ford will get to keep his dignity as Han Solo.Abrams gave Leonard Nimoy's Spock some dignity.Which is a far better fate than what Lucas would do; he already assraped Indiana Jones.

Film opens with a republic corvette approaching what appears to be a lightning storm in space but is really the deathstar coming out of a wormhole captained by a mandalorian named Nemo Fett. A young jedi anakin skywalker resentfully takes the helm of the corvette as captain Qui Gon agrees to board the death star to negotiate. But once Qui Gon is aboard the death star Nemo kills him and fires on the corvette. Knowing the fight to be one sided anakin orders his pregnant wife Padme Amidala to escape in a shuttle while he rams the larger ship ineffectually with his own. The final dialogue of the scene has the couple deciding to name the child Luke. Cut to some years later a young boy having just stolen his uncles speeder is racing across the dune sea, while an anachronistic beasty boys song blares, being chased by droid police officers. After leaping from the speeder due to having driven it dramatically into the sarlaac pit the now dusty young boy identifies himself to the officer as Luke Skywalker. Another time cut shows an older Luke, played by Zac Efron, getting his drink on at Toshi station when some rebels enter including Zoe Saldana as Leia Organa. Luke tries unsuccessfully to hit on Leia before getting into a barfight with Biggs and Tank. The next morning while Luke is nursing his wounds Old Ben Kenobi walks in and plays on Luke's daddy issues to get him to join the rebels. Then through a series of unlikely coincidences Luke winds up on the Millenium Falcon with younger versions of the entire Episode IV cast: Threepio is inexplicably a sword wielding robot samurai... After a failed attempt by Luke to convince everyone he is a Jedi the young Han Solo maroons Luke on Hoth where, as fate would have it, he meets up with a much older Han Solo being reprised by Harrison Ford. It turns out Harrison had been brought back in time and stranded on Hoth by Nemo Fett so that he could watch Alderaan get annihilated by the death star as payback for Han's accidental murder of Nemo's father Boba in his past which is now the future that wont happen because time paradox. Anyway, the two seek out an old rebel base manned only by Robin Williams playing chewbacca with a scottish accent for some reason (it is estimated the production will save millions on body hair prosthetics) who deus ex machinas all three of them back to the millenium falcon in time to perform a trench run scene culminating in the destruction of the death star and kickstarting a new continuity.

As long as they respect his age and don't force him into action scenes that can't possibly live up to the originals like with Crystal Skull this is a good thing. In fact this could be really interesting.

Ickabod:Seems like a good set up for a sibling rivalry, Han being the father, one child goes evil while the other good. Maybe the bad child killing Han off.

You're half right. One of Hans children, if my memory of the vast mass of void that is the expanded universe is to be believed, did infact turn evil.

SPOILERS ahead (they are very old...if you wanted you have probably read...but you are warned)

Also i apologize, i do not know how to work the spoiler tagging..

In the EU, they had three kids, the youngest gets killed by the extra-galactic vong race....the other two are twins, the boy does go sith and earns a darth title, killing his aunt (mara) in the process....his sister kills him later in a duel. Yes i have read most of the EU stuff. Most of it is garbage, the Zahn books are actually pretty damn good. The bounty Hunter Trilogy is a fun ride, though not great. And one or two of the Vong series (23 or 25 volumes i can't remember it has been a long time) are decently written books, but that is about it. Beyond Zahn nothing really feels like a Star Wars type of book other than throwing the main characters around, to me Zahn was the only one that actually captured the universe it self well.

Oh, i agree it's mostly garbage...there is a reason i used the words "Vast mass of void" to describe the EU. It's also the reason i employ Selective Canon with it (Although i am grateful for them having Boba Fett survive the Sarlacc and for making Kyle Katarn). For example, there was apparently a rumor of the emperor coming back to life somehow...good thing THAT never happened in starwars amirite? *plugs ears* LALALALALA! I CAN'T HEAR YOU! LALALALALA! IT DIDN'T HAPPEN! LALALALA!

Norix596:If they regather all the original actors for this there's probably going to be some awkwardness about Harrison Ford being the ONLY ONE who had a successful career after their big break.

Actually Mark Hamill has had quite a successful career as a voice actor. You might know him as the Joker

Fair enough, he also voices like ALL of the English dub Miyazaki movies so he's up there in the voice-acting A-list but I mean that Ford is the anyone who's been on a prominent movie poster in the last 30-ish years.

By that I mean Luke, Leia, Lando, and 3PO. Everyone else who might show up in the version of episode 7 that I want to see is minor enough that they can be replaced with a look-alike, wears a costume, or is dead.

C3P0 and R2D2 are kind of given... R2 is easy and 3P0 is voice work for Anthony Daniels.In fact if R2 isn't in the new trilogy I may join the hords in nerd rage.

I don't think the films would benefit from too much of the old. They need to respect the history but give us something new. I'm even ok with them taking a few (A FEW) liberties with the canon novels.

What does anybody want Han Solo to do really? His Arc ended when he got released from the carbonite. You *might* be able to get Luke to fill the "Yoda" role, or perhaps the "Kenobi" role. But anybody else? Is Han really going to be adventuring around the galaxy with his giant dog and committing crimes?

REally there's only three things I can imagine happening to Han Solo:

1) He's married Leia and has a boring high level security job busting the kind of crooks he used to be that he is likely soon to retire from.2) They're divorced and he's pissing away the last of his smuggling profits while hiding from bounty hunters who want his blood.3) He's dead.

None of those ideas make for particularly epic story telling.

Chewie? Chewie's probably an elder statesman of his tribe or something, or he's running a successful and legal freighter company after offloading his newly married loose cannon of a partner. This would make a dull movie.

Lando? He'd be back in administration. He seemed to really like it, and was good at it. Maybe not at Besbin but probably a space station somewhere. Again I don't find this to be particularly compelling thrilling space adventure material.

Mark Hamill is the obvious choice because you could just drop him into the Ben Kenobi character and it wouldn't matter an inch. In fact I can think of all sorts of things that Luke Skywalker could be doing. Running a new Jedi Academy, secretly running a Jedi Acadamy, refusing to run a Jedi acadamy, trying to warn the new senate of a new Sith presence. Han however? Retired, dead or clocking hours at a boring desk job.

Leia would actually be interesting because she's an Ambassador and that might lead to some serious interstellar hijinks. But good luck getting Carrie Fisher cleaned up enough to play that part.

You're half right. One of Hans children, if my memory of the vast mass of void that is the expanded universe is to be believed, did infact turn evil.

SPOILERS ahead (they are very old...if you wanted you have probably read...but you are warned)

Also i apologize, i do not know how to work the spoiler tagging..

In the EU, they had three kids, the youngest gets killed by the extra-galactic vong race....the other two are twins, the boy does go sith and earns a darth title, killing his aunt (mara) in the process....his sister kills him later in a duel. Yes i have read most of the EU stuff. Most of it is garbage, the Zahn books are actually pretty damn good. The bounty Hunter Trilogy is a fun ride, though not great. And one or two of the Vong series (23 or 25 volumes i can't remember it has been a long time) are decently written books, but that is about it. Beyond Zahn nothing really feels like a Star Wars type of book other than throwing the main characters around, to me Zahn was the only one that actually captured the universe it self well.

Oh, i agree it's mostly garbage...there is a reason i used the words "Vast mass of void" to describe the EU. It's also the reason i employ Selective Canon with it (Although i am grateful for them having Boba Fett survive the Sarlacc and for making Kyle Katarn). For example, there was apparently a rumor of the emperor coming back to life somehow...good thing THAT never happened in starwars amirite? *plugs ears* LALALALALA! I CAN'T HEAR YOU! LALALALALA! IT DIDN'T HAPPEN! LALALALA!

Yeah, seriously bad set of stuff there.....think that mess was called Dark Empire 2 or something. That is not the worst offender in my book, but it is top 3 easily

TAdamson:What does anybody want Han Solo to do really? His Arc ended when he got released from the carbonite. You *might* be able to get Luke to fill the "Yoda" role, or perhaps the "Kenobi" role. But anybody else? Is Han really going to be adventuring around the galaxy with his giant dog and committing crimes?

REally there's only three things I can imagine happening to Han Solo:

1) He's married Leia and has a boring high level security job busting the kind of crooks he used to be that he is likely soon to retire from.2) They're divorced and he's pissing away the last of his smuggling profits while hiding from bounty hunters who want his blood.3) He's dead.

None of those ideas make for particularly epic story telling.

Chewie? Chewie's probably an elder statesman of his tribe or something, or he's running a successful and legal freighter company after offloading his newly married loose cannon of a partner. This would make a dull movie.

Lando? He'd be back in administration. He seemed to really like it, and was good at it. Maybe not at Besbin but probably a space station somewhere. Again I don't find this to be particularly compelling thrilling space adventure material.

Mark Hamill is the obvious choice because you could just drop him into the Ben Kenobi character and it wouldn't matter an inch. In fact I can think of all sorts of things that Luke Skywalker could be doing. Running a new Jedi Academy, secretly running a Jedi Acadamy, refusing to run a Jedi acadamy, trying to warn the new senate of a new Sith presence. Han however? Retired, dead or clocking hours at a boring desk job.

Leia would actually be interesting because she's an Ambassador and that might lead to some serious interstellar hijinks. But good luck getting Carrie Fisher cleaned up enough to play that part.

Assuming that they're going to bring back Harrison Ford to play a role set far enough in the future of canon to be appropriate for his age (and not give him a CGI-laden cameo shot) i.e. a story set ~30 or 40 years after A New Hope, and assuming that they're not planning on butchering the Expanded Universe, Luke Skywalker will have been the Grand Master of a Jedi Academy he founded, Chewbacca would be dead, Lando would be a semi-retired owner of an weapons manufacturing company (...last I checked?), Leia would be a Jedi Master alongside Luke and also an important (former) political figure in the New Republic, and Han Solo would be retired military General (or something, forget his exact military designation) in the New Republic.

He'd basically fill the role that Admiral Ackbar did in the previous series: being the go-to guy when you need a gigantic ship-battle scene. Oh, and Han, Leia, and Luke would have grown children that could play a major role.

The plot, however, intrigues me: 40 years later is about the time when the Expanded Universe kinda just stops (as in authors haven't written much). One of the more recently written EU series' is called "Fate of the Jedi" and takes place after a major civil war amidst growing return of the Sith (very original, as you can tell). That said, his role in this series involves quite a lot of action as a primary character alongside Leia Solo, Luke Skywalker, and some of their kids. So I doubt they'd actually do that point in time.

So if Harrison Ford is getting a decent role it would be some time after the conclusion of that series, I assume. So either they're bypassing most of the EU canon by setting it far in the future and making a totally new story, they're butchering the EU canon, or they're just going to have him cameo.

DVS BSTrD:He's the smuggler who made the bathroom run in less than 12 parsecs.

I am posting here for the sole reason of informing that above poster that his comment cracked me up.

Seconded...in fact that post appears to be made of 100% pure win with no fillers.

Now...I'm going to hold judgement on this. Seeing Han as an old man will make sense in this film since it DOES take place some time in the future of the New Republic, but it's how Ford will pull off this elder version of the nerf herder that will determine whether he's still got it.

what's this hyper transdimensional doohicky good for anyway? 'press button'well where's the thrill of the chase if it's over in half a nanosecond?in my day we went .5 past light speed both ways and we liked it! now hand o'l han the prune juice

I can't imagine he'll have much of a role beyond a brief cameo. There's no reason he can't deliver a speech as a high-ranking general of the rebels/new republic. Ford may be old, but he can still look good standing still in an officer's uniform: see the pictures floating around of his role in the upcoming Ender's Game movie.

JJ Abrams and Disney would be fools to try to get anything more than that out of the main characters from episodes 4-6. Their character arcs are done, and the actors are far too old for anything that wouldn't be seen as a RED-esque action-comedy.

DjinnFor:The plot, however, intrigues me: 40 years later is about the time when the Expanded Universe kinda just stops (as in authors haven't written much). One of the more recently written EU series' is called "Fate of the Jedi" and takes place after a major civil war amidst growing return of the Sith (very original, as you can tell). That said, his role in this series involves quite a lot of action as a primary character alongside Leia Solo, Luke Skywalker, and some of their kids. So I doubt they'd actually do that point in time.

So if Harrison Ford is getting a decent role it would be some time after the conclusion of that series, I assume. So either they're bypassing most of the EU canon by setting it far in the future and making a totally new story, they're butchering the EU canon, or they're just going to have him cameo.

The EU doesn't stop after 40 years, it just timejumps 100 years into the future with the Legacy of the Force comic series (Cade Skywalker and resurgence of the Sith Empire and all that).

I don't think it will be related too much to the "current" EU storylines anyway. The Fate of the Jedi series basically follows on from plot-lines from years back, right back to the New Jedi Order series (which itself was almost a 'soft-reboot' of the EU). Though I guess they could sort of take all the elements from the recent 'current' EU and interpret it into a trilogy. Have Han and Leia's kids starting out as Jedi Knights, throw the Vong in as the Bad Guys, have Jacen Solo go dark-side and end up in an epic duel with his sister Jaina, let Papa Solo make a cameo as a cranky old retired smuggler and have Luke Skywalker's son Ben grow up to become the next Jedi Grandmaster.

kael013:Well, since the EU has had Han be a badass well into old age, this could be fine. However, I've been skeptical of this "sequel trilogy" ever since it was announced for multiple reasons - Disney in charge, JJ Abrams directing (granted this one is only a mild worry since I liked the Star Trek reboot), that whole "Are they going to respect the EU?" question - and this is now another worry to add to the list (possibly cashing in on the remaining love for the original trilogy with cameos). I don't care about casting information; I want information about how dark it's going to be and when it's set (so I'll know which EU books I may have to throw out).

I think they already stated that they won't be working with the EU.

Which is a rotten shame because the Thrawn Trilogy is prefect to be put on the big screen. It would validate Han's appearance so it won't be a silly cameo and it'd have the best Star Wars villain since ever. Thrawn is cooler than Darth Vader. Way cooler.

I was hoping they'd move on from old characters and give us something new for a change. It's kind of sad to think that Star Wars video games are what moved the franchise forward far more than those sequels ever did. And now my faith in new Star Wars movies is diminishing. At least we'll get more Star Wars video games after the movie. Maybe some of them will give us something new to see in Star Wars universe. Like that 1313 thing.

By that I mean Luke, Leia, Lando, and 3PO. Everyone else who might show up in the version of episode 7 that I want to see is minor enough that they can be replaced with a look-alike, wears a costume, or is dead.

How exactly does C-3PO not fall into the "wears a costume" category? Heck, I don't even remember the name of the guy in the suit, nor what he looks like.

j-e-f-f-e-r-s:Hmmm... hopefully if Solo is already going to be old in this film, that means they're not rewriting/retconning the Thrawn trilogy. I know the EU has its fair share of crap, but those books are too legitimately good to be retconned out of existence.

All hail Timothy Zahn!

That's always been the one person who kept Star Wars alive for me through it all, and these books are kinda impossible to adapt to screen given the age of the actors anyway... So they'll just ignore that there's already a story right there. Which I find incredibly disrespectful towards the authors who've shaped that universe these past thirty years...

j-e-f-f-e-r-s:Hmmm... hopefully if Solo is already going to be old in this film, that means they're not rewriting/retconning the Thrawn trilogy. I know the EU has its fair share of crap, but those books are too legitimately good to be retconned out of existence.

All hail Timothy Zahn!

That's always been the one person who kept Star Wars alive for me through it all, and these books are kinda impossible to adapt to screen given the age of the actors anyway... So they'll just ignore that there's already a story right there. Which I find incredibly disrespectful towards the authors who've shaped that universe these past thirty years...

I wouldn't be too upset if they did the Zahn books and just made it happen later than the 5 years after Endor that it was supposed to be. I'd even be ok with having Han and Leia's kids be the main characters rather than Luke and Crew. Have Luke running the Jedi academy and Han a senator or some such and the new Jedi take a lead role with the old folks in the background. Really I just want to see Ian McKellan painted blue with possibly John Barrowman as Paelleon (the Empire needs to remain white brits).

Though I'd like to see a totally orginal story even more than that. Having one or two of the old cast is fine but the setting has amazing potential even outside the EU.

thetoddo:Really I just want to see Ian McKellan painted blue with possibly John Barrowman as Paelleon (the Empire needs to remain white brits).

You and I imagine Thrawn and the good Captain very differently. Especially when it comes to age.

If you're setting it 30+ years after Endor Thrawn would be getting up there in years (though not knowing how long Chiss live I suppose a case could be made for someone younger if they have a longer lifespan) and I think in that case the Paelleon role would be better played by a younger protege who Thrawn is training. If they had done the Trawn trilogy in the 80s I'd be right on board with having both characters played by actors in their 40s/50s.

To be honest, in the expanded universe Han, Luke and Leia are much older, if they get Mark, he will undoubtedly be in the Jedi Temple teaching Padawans, and Han and Leia will be with there kids...i cant see the movie following them, but they will be main characters, they have to be, if not then there isn't a point of them being in the film, The expanded universe pretty much revolves around them, albeit a few moments.